Sometimes I forget there are people out there reading my blog posts (thank you, by the way), until I go on a rant like my last post.  In the days that followed I got several e-mails/text from friends & family – “well, what happened?” – admittedly I was still a little fired up from driving all the way there and back when I wrote it (in case you couldn’t tell).

Anyways, I called, they apologized. One of the scheduling ladies said she left a voice mail on my cell (which obviously she didn’t), and they gave me an appointment the next day.  I loved my new primary care doctor, she was young, smart, nice, and thorough, plus she set me up with a new Gyno, which I also needed.  She brought in the office manager so I could tell him the story, because I was sure the scheduling people were not going to…he apologized and validated my parking.  Done – I just didn’t want it to happen to somebody else.

Sometimes I also forget how helpful my experiences can be to others.  Let’s face it, I’ve had a few tough life experiences (and I am not talking about the recent appointment drama!)  But, the thing is I don’t really dwell on it or let it define who I am, I just keep moving on.  Last week I had a good reminder, which I needed.

I made a new friend.  She is a friend and fellow teacher to one of our good friends and she has breast cancer.  Although we’ve offered to help, I should have known she wouldn’t reach out.  Now in the thick of chemo treatments, our friend (caring soul) was worried about her, so we reached out to her.  I asked her to lunch remembering somehow all the weird things happening to your body suddenly feel better when you hear the same thing happened to someone else.  Plus, I passed along the link to my blog, hoping she could relate…

Well, she did!  As it turns out, we had the same type of breast cancer (most people don’t realize there are many different types), so our treatment schedules were identical.  She sent me a message saying she was going to peek at my blog and ending up reading for an hour! At our lunch, we chatted for almost two hours and she walked away with “a new feeling of power…being able to do it and have it behind me.”

I walked away with a renewed feeling of power…being able to help others through a true understanding of what they are dealing with.  I survived and came out the other side stronger than ever and so can they.  I didn’t do it alone, in fact was lucky to have a lot of people who cared and helped along the way.  Help can come in many different ways, big and small.

So, as I sit here and type, some yummy BBQ chicken is cooking in the Crock-Pot which will turn into BBQ Pulled Chicken Sliders and Salad for tonight’s dinner for my new friend & her family.  I’ll drop it off later along with the many head scarves I experimented with during my baldy stage.  I’ll put off making them my famous Buffalo Chicken Mac & Cheese for a month or so, because right about now I know she has some pretty nasty mouth sores and shouldn’t attempt Buffalo anything…trust me.